Fly Like An Eagle

It's been a very hectic last couple of weeks. In an attempt to get away from our brutal winters in Minnesota, I took a job with the VA Travel Nurse Corps. It was a tough decision to go on the road, but I think it's a good point in my life as well as my wife's life to try spreading our wings and checking out other parts of the country.

Through all of this air  travel and some of  the sights I have seen in Phoenix and Dallas, I cannot help but to think of the Steve Miller song "Fly Like an Eagle"(A Dallas native, by the way).

Last week, I was in Phoenix, Arizona doing some training at the VA Medical Center. It was my first time in The Valley of the Sun. Phoenix is a very spread out metropolitan area with an interesting mix of Mexicans, Native Americans, retirees, yuppies, and Military people. The Medical Center was about a 40 minute walk from my hotel, so when classes were done, I enjoyed exploring the neighborhoods around Indian School Road to 20th street. On one of my walkabouts, I stumbled onto some cool murals with some Segauro cacti near them. The Seguaro Cactus is native to the Desert Southwest, and they are huge. The well in this shot is about 4 feet tall, and you can see how the cactus towers over it. I really liked the painting of the eagle shadow on the wall....

After a week in Phoenix,  where I had a chance to enjoy some great Southwestern style cuisine and take in some other downtown sites,
I am now here in Dallas, Texas; where I am going to be working at the VA Medical Center in South Dallas until mid April on their Spinal Cord Unit. Normally, they don't get much snow in North Texas, but this past weekend, my sister's neighborhood got about 3-4 inches of the white stuff. The kids in her neighborhood took advantage of this rare snowfall and I was able to watch them playing and frolicking like deranged ferrets in the snow having a good time building snowmen and having snow fights with the wet snow.

You don't appreciate how spread out the Dallas/Fort Worth area is until you get down here and either drive in it, or use the DART system(Dallas Area Rapid Transit). It's an almost 1 hour ride (with transfer) from my hotel in North Dallas to the VA Medical Center in South Dallas. I would have liked to be able to bike to and from work with the public transport system like I did up in Minneapolis, but the VA Medical Center is what can be called a "Great hospital-BAD neighborhood". I start work there next Tuesday. This week I have been going around Dallas and getting a feel for where things are located and how long it will take me to get from point A to point B. I have enjoyed taking in the sites in downtown Dallas. 

My wife will be joining me down here in a couple of weeks. I am hoping that she can find some work down here, but I do know that she will be a lot happier to get out of that bitter cold in Minnesota.

I also have on my to-do list looking up the Dallas Harlequins to see if I can catch some games and some socials. That is on my to-do list for the next week.